I'm looking for opinions on the above option... I have been driving for approximately 10 years, average of 20 bucks a week for a total of $10,000 in the last 14 months I have turned in 6 - 9.5 violations, to which I have been paid on none of them... My 9.5 from January of last year went all the way to center level and then it just disappeared... I had 5 10hr days in a row. I have a bid rt but they cut it out all week and put me on another rt and hammered me all week... I was told that I couldn't file a 9.5 on it because it wasn't a opted in rt, but that I 'could' use it to opt myself back in and be covered again for the 5 or 6 months... then when they started 9.5ing me again this year on my own rt, I played by the rules I notified mgt I would be over 9.5 and worked as instructed... picking up 3 to 4 - 9.5's a week... filled out the form, gave it to the shop steward... and then a month later I was told that the union hall or headquarters or whatever it's called that handles our claims... had lost my 9.5 opt in info, and even though I had saved copies it didn't matter because they didn't have records of it... and then when I turned in the next 9.5 they claimed they received the fax one day late so it didn't count either even though I turned it in on Monday for the previous week...
One of the shop stewards that has been encouraging me to file on all of these he and I were both running 9.5s for the week and we were keeping notes with each other comparing days... but when he got his 3rd 9.5 that week he didn't use it to opt in... and when I asked him why he just laughed and said "I'm smart enough not to stick my neck out there and paint a target on my back"... so after months and months of him encouraging me to file file file...and me doing so... now he tells me he's smart enough not to file???
I tore some tendons in my hand and didn't work for a couple months... I went to the Dr complaining about having pain in my hand and not having control of my hands some times it would just release the pkg I was carrying... He told me it was from overuse syndrome, and my hand had micro tears in them and were unable to repair themselves while I kept working... So when I turned the dr's notes into work it was a straight out battle for me to get the case settled. I had to run around and get notes and info, I went and consulted a public defender for work related issues... I did all the ground work and all I got from the union was telling me not to change my original story.... which I had no intentions of doing... I wasn't lying about anything so it was easy to keep the story straight. So in the end when the company sent me to 'their' dr, and he confirmed the same thing my dr had said then they signed off on it and it was a workmans comp claim. So instead of getting 1/3 pay I now get 2/3 pay... "BUT" my state has a ceiling on the amount they pay out, so i got roughly 1/2... so after all the hassle and headaches and pissing off my mngt team by filing workmans comp on them, it amounted to a 1/6th more pay.... And then when I did get to return back to work I got double union dues pulling out of my check for months and months to make up for the dues that didn't get paid while I was not working... after the fact I was told, oh yeah you should have told them to temporally withdraw from the union while I was not working... all the times I called the union for info they never even mentioned it... the shop steward that was coaching me on what to do failed to mention it until after i was back at work and I was asking him why my union dues are so high....
Sorry for being so lengthy but I wanted to give the details on why I see no need in paying dues any longer at this point... I can get a policy with Aflac for the same thing i'm paying in dues, and if I get hurt again... I can get 100% of my pay from them and then a 1/3 from disability...
So am I missing something somewhere? Is there a good reason to keep paying dues? Or just go with my plans of withdrawing thus one less brick being bought by me for the tower they're building somewhere...
Thoughts?
One of the shop stewards that has been encouraging me to file on all of these he and I were both running 9.5s for the week and we were keeping notes with each other comparing days... but when he got his 3rd 9.5 that week he didn't use it to opt in... and when I asked him why he just laughed and said "I'm smart enough not to stick my neck out there and paint a target on my back"... so after months and months of him encouraging me to file file file...and me doing so... now he tells me he's smart enough not to file???
I tore some tendons in my hand and didn't work for a couple months... I went to the Dr complaining about having pain in my hand and not having control of my hands some times it would just release the pkg I was carrying... He told me it was from overuse syndrome, and my hand had micro tears in them and were unable to repair themselves while I kept working... So when I turned the dr's notes into work it was a straight out battle for me to get the case settled. I had to run around and get notes and info, I went and consulted a public defender for work related issues... I did all the ground work and all I got from the union was telling me not to change my original story.... which I had no intentions of doing... I wasn't lying about anything so it was easy to keep the story straight. So in the end when the company sent me to 'their' dr, and he confirmed the same thing my dr had said then they signed off on it and it was a workmans comp claim. So instead of getting 1/3 pay I now get 2/3 pay... "BUT" my state has a ceiling on the amount they pay out, so i got roughly 1/2... so after all the hassle and headaches and pissing off my mngt team by filing workmans comp on them, it amounted to a 1/6th more pay.... And then when I did get to return back to work I got double union dues pulling out of my check for months and months to make up for the dues that didn't get paid while I was not working... after the fact I was told, oh yeah you should have told them to temporally withdraw from the union while I was not working... all the times I called the union for info they never even mentioned it... the shop steward that was coaching me on what to do failed to mention it until after i was back at work and I was asking him why my union dues are so high....
Sorry for being so lengthy but I wanted to give the details on why I see no need in paying dues any longer at this point... I can get a policy with Aflac for the same thing i'm paying in dues, and if I get hurt again... I can get 100% of my pay from them and then a 1/3 from disability...
So am I missing something somewhere? Is there a good reason to keep paying dues? Or just go with my plans of withdrawing thus one less brick being bought by me for the tower they're building somewhere...
Thoughts?
